Only Love by Happy the Man

Prog Legends Happy The Man Return With New Single “Only Love” From Forthcoming Album

Prog legends Happy The Man have returned with the release of a new single “Only Love” on Martin Luther King Jr. Day January 15, 2024. The song is from the band’s highly anticipated forthcoming album of the same name.

Stanley Whitaker, Ron Riddle, Michael Beck and Rick Kennell have reunited and recorded a phenomenal new song promising to please not only fans of the band but prog fans worldwide!

Says Stanley, “The basic concept was to not only express my frustration and sadness but hopefully help shed some light and awareness into the world... My ‘muses’ rarely give me lyrics but in a deep meditation in late August 2020, I wondered what would John Lennon have to say about the state of affairs in America and I craved for his voice and message and prayed for inspiration. All of the sudden, I wrote down 10+ pages of lyrics and spent the next 2 weeks editing... What happened with the reunion oddly enough was that Frank Wyatt (our former bandmate) had passed away on January 10, 2023 and the following morning I awoke to, ‘Now it’s time to put HTM back together’... wow... gobsmacked... Immediately called Rick, Ron and Michael and all were way on board so we did it all remotely from our own studios.”

Says Ron Riddle, “My work as a film & TV composer/orchestrator and my work as a drummer have always been at odds and very separate from each other. I would say that over 95% of the music I’ve written for TV and Film had no drums at all. So when Stan & Rick approached me to ‘get the band back together’ and Stan wanted me to do the orchestration writing as well as the drumming. Well, I was smitten. I was thrilled and to be honest, a bit nervous. Could both exist in the same song, I wondered? It’s like Dr. Jeckel meeting Mr. Hyde!”

Says Michael Beck, “Putting Happy The Man back together, and creating new music is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Could not be more happy & proud to be working with these incredible musicians & friends once again.”

Says Rick, “How can you not enjoy working with musicians of this caliber? What fun!”

Born out of the intensely creative and artistic art rock and fusion movements of the seventies, Happy The Man is one of the most legendary progressive rock bands of all time. Although Happy The Man only released two official albums before breaking up, their impact was strong enough to durably endear the group to a cult following that has been growing ever since. And with the passing of the years, Happy The Man’s music has demonstrated a timeless quality which suggests that it was not only ahead of its time, it was also, in many ways, beyond this world.

Original members Stanley Whitaker (guitar) and Rick Kennell (bass) first met in Germany and soon returned to the US, enlisting Frank Wyatt (keyboards, saxes, flute), Kit Watkins (keyboards) and Mike Beck (drums) and proceeded to create two of the most deeply admired prog-rock albums of all time. Their Arista Records releases, “Happy The Man” (1977) and “Crafty Hands” (1978) (the latter of which Ron Riddle replaced Beck on drums) are among the most respected albums of all time among art-rock and fusion musicians.

“This world is on fire, my friends and we desperately need to share our love and light to heal this planet earth!”

Born out of the intensely creative and artistic art rock and fusion movements of the seventies, Happy The Man is one of the most legendary progressive rock bands of all time. Although Happy The Man only released two official albums before breaking up, their impact was strong enough to durably endear the group to a cult following that has been growing ever since.